October 2018

Contractor’s Q’s
‘PERSEVERANCE IS SOMETHING THAT
YOU SHOULD HAVE IN ABUNDANCE’
Archibald McCorquodale & Son is a fourth generation family-owned and managed roofing and
building contracting company located on the southside of Glasgow. The company is currently
owned by Colin McCorquodale, a Chartered Building Surveyor, and Gavin McCorquodale, a
qualified roof slater. The award-winning roofing company was founded in 1911 by Archibald, the Great
Grandfather of the current owners. Total Contractor caught up with Colin McCorquodale to put our
questions to him about projects, the market and his experiences over the years...
10
questions for Colin McCorquodale:
“It is fantastic to see a
young person that we
take on learn their
trade and grow into a
confident and
competent
tradesperson”
TC: What was your path into roofing and
to your current position?
CM: Growing up, my father ran our family roofing
business and I was always interested in one day
doing the same. However, I trained and practised
as a Chartered Building Surveyor before joining
our family business some 24 years ago. This has
allowed me to bring a different perspective to the
company and also to better understand the needs
of many of our customers, particularly in the
commercial market.
TC: If you had one piece of advice about
starting a roofing business, what would it
be?
CM: Perseverance is something that you should
have in abundance. The roofing industry is a very
challenging environment and you will face many
obstacles and set backs on a daily basis, with
many of them being factors totally out of your
control. However, our industry is rewarding. I
would urge anyone starting a roofing company to
join a Trade Association, such as NFRC, where
you will gain a lot of information, contacts and
will have an opportunity to be involved in shaping
the industry.
TC: Tell us about a current project you’re
working on…
CM: Typically our workload is very varied and at
any one time we are likely to be working on
traditional strip and reslate projects, minor roof
repairs, roof alterations, industrial
sheet roofing repairs or renewal.
Currently we are involved in a
strip and reslate of a traditional
Glasgow tenemental property in a
highly visible city location. The work
itself is straightforward and very typical of
this sort of project, however there are many
challenges, particularly in terms of storage of
materials, siting of welfare, removal of debris,
traffic and pedestrian management as well as
liaison with the building occupiers. This project
highlights that as contractors we need many
skills other than just technical knowledge of
roofing to make a project work successfully.
“Most projects have
their difficulties and
it’s the ease or
otherwise with which
these are sorted out
that make certain jobs
stand out”
TC: You must have worked on some
difficult projects over the years. Does one
in particular stand out?
CM: I think it’s fair to say that most projects have
their difficulties and it’s the ease or otherwise
with which these are sorted out that make certain
Left: Colin McCorquodale, Owner, Archibald
McCorquodale & Son.
jobs stand out. In recent times
our biggest difficulties have come
from the weather, particularly the
various versions of the “Beast from the
East” at the start of this year which really slowed
us down, and on reflection affected productivity
and future planning more than we realised at the
time.
TC: What about difficult customers? Any
situations that stand out that you can tell
us about?!
CM: Like all contractors we have our fair share of
challenging – we don’t like the word difficult! –
customers, particularly in the domestic sector
where we need to appreciate our work represents
a large investment for the homeowner, and
generally we are an industry they approach with
some trepidation that they have little knowledge
of. In the commercial sphere difficulties often
arise when clients, for various reasons, are
unrealistic about either project duration or
budgets.
The rise of the internet has perhaps given us one
of our more standout challenges; we were
undertaking a fairly simple roofing scheme for a
domestic customer who insisted on stopping us
working what seemed like every 10 minutes so
that they could validate what we were doing
30 TC OCTOBER 2018